Jeremiah vents his sorrow at the rejection of his prayer. In reading these and similar expostulations we feel that we have to do with a man who was the reluctant minister of a higher power, from where alone he drew strength to be content to do and suffer.

Strife - More exactly, "lawsuit;" the sense is, "I am as a man who has to enter into judgment with and reprove the whole earth."

I have neither lent ... - i. e., I have no personal cause of quarrel with the people, that I should thus be perpetually at strife with them. The relations between the moneylender and the debtor were a fruitful source of lawsuits and quarrelling.

A man of contention to the whole earth! - To the whole Land, to all his countrymen; though he had done nothing to merit their displeasure.

Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast born me a man of strife,.... Not that the prophet was a quarrelsome and contentious man, but others quarrelled and contended with him, and that for no other reason than for his faithful discharge of his office, under which he ought to have been easy; but being a man of like passions with others, wishes he had never been born, than to meet with so much trouble; and seems to blame his mother for bearing him; or however looked upon himself to be a miserable man through his birth, and that he was destined from thence to this sorrow:

and a man of contention to the whole earth; or "land"; the land of Judea, the inhabitants of it, as the Targum; for with no other had Jeremiah to do; and it were these only that contended with him, because he brought a disagreeable message to them, concerning their captivity:

I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; which was not lawful with the Jews to do; and therefore such were cursed that did it: but this is not to be restrained to this particular branch of business, which was not usual; but has respect to all trade and commerce; and the meaning is, that the prophet did not concern himself with secular affairs, but attended to the duties of his office; he carried on no negotiations with men; he was neither a creditor nor a debtor; had nothing to do with pecuniary affairs; which often occasions strifes and contentions, quarrels and lawsuits; and yet, notwithstanding, could not be free from strife and debate:

yet everyone of them do curse me; that is, everyone of the inhabitants of the land of Judea, so much known were Jeremiah and his prophecies; these slighted and set light by both him and his predictions; and wished the vilest imprecations upon him for his messages to them. The word here used is compounded of two words, or derived from two roots, as Kimchi observes; the one signifies to make light or vilify, in opposition to honour and glory; and the other to curse, in opposition to blessing; and this is often the case of the ministers of the word, not only to be slighted and despised, but to be defamed and cursed; see 1 Corinthians 4:12.

Complaint of the Prophet, and Soothing Answer of the Lord. - His sorrow at the rejection by God of his petition so overcomes the prophet, that he gives utterance to the wish: he had rather not have been born than live on in the calling in which he must ever foretell misery and ruin to his people, thereby provoking hatred and attacks, while his heart is like to break for grief and fellow-feeling; whereupon the Lord reprovingly replies as in Jeremiah 15:11-14.

Jeremiah 15:10

"Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast born me, a man of strive and contention to all the earth! I have not lent out, nor have men lent to me; all curse me. Jeremiah 15:11. Jahveh saith, Verily I strengthen thee to thy good; verily I cause the enemy to entreat thee in the time of evil and of trouble. Jeremiah 15:12. Does iron break, iron from the north and brass? Jeremiah 15:13. Thy substance and thy treasures give I for a prey without a price, and that for all thy sins, and in all thy borders, Jeremiah 15:14. And cause thine enemies bring it into a land which thou knowest not; for fire burneth in mine anger, against you it is kindled."

Woe is me, exclaims Jeremiah in Jeremiah 15:10, that my mother brought me forth! The apostrophe to his mother is significant of the depth of his sorrow, and is not to be understood as if he were casting any reproach on his mother; it is an appeal to his mother to share with him his sorrow at his lot. This lament is consequently very different from Job's cursing of the day of his birth, Job 3:1. The apposition to the suffix "me," the man of strife and contention, conveys the meaning of the lament in this wise: me, who must yet be a man, with whom the whole world strives and contends. Ew. wrongly render it: "to be a man of strife," etc.; for it was not his mother's fault that he became such an one. The second clause intimates that he has not provoked the strife and contention. נשׁה, lend, i.e., give on loan, and with בּ, to lend to a person, lend out; hence נשׁה, debtor, and נשׁה בו, creditor, Isaiah 24:2. These words are not an individualizing of the thought: all interchange of friendly services between me and human society is broken off (Hitz.). For intercourse with one's fellow-men does not chiefly, or in the foremost place, consist in lending and borrowing of gold and other articles. Borrowing and lending is rather the frequent occasion of strife and ill-will;

(Note: Calvin aptly remarks: Unde enim inter homines et lites et jurgia, nisi quia male inter ipsos convenit, dum ultro et citro negotiantur?)

and it is in this reference that it is here brought up. Jeremiah says he has neither as bad debtor or disobliging creditor given occasion to hatred and quarrelling, and yet all curse him. This is the meaning of the last words, in which the form מקללוני is hard to explain. The rabbinical attempts to clear it up by means of a commingling of the verbs קלל and קלה are now, and reasonably, given up. Ew. (Gram. 350, c) wants to make it מקללנני; but probably the form has arisen merely out of the wrong dividing of a word, and ought to be read כּלּהם קללוּני. So read most recent scholars, after the example of J. D. Mich.; cf. also Bttcher, Grammat. ii. S. 322, note. It is true that we nowhere else find כּלּהם; but we find an analogy in the archaic כּלּהם . In its favour we have, besides, the circumstance, that the heavy form הם is by preference appended to short words; see Bttcher, as above, S. 21.

{k} Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither {l} lent on interest, nor have men lent to me on interest; yet every one of them doth curse me.

(k) By these are the prophet's words, complaining of the obstinacy of the people and that he was reserved to so wicked a time: in which also he shows what is the condition of God's ministers, that is, to have all the world against them, though they give no opportunity.

(l) Which is an opportunity for contention and hatred.

15:10 I have not - I have done them no wrong, yet they speak of me all manner of evil.

10. (Jer 20:14; Job 3:1, &c.). Jeremiah seems to have been of a peculiarly sensitive temperament; yet the Holy Spirit enabled him to deliver his message at the certain cost of having his sensitiveness wounded by the enmities of those whom his words offended.

man of strife-exposed to strifes on the part of "the whole earth" (Ps 80:6).

I have neither lent, &c.-proverbial for, "I have given no cause for strife against me."

15:10-14 Jeremiah met with much contempt and reproach, when they ought to have blessed him, and God for him. It is a great and sufficient support to the people of God, that however troublesome their way may be, it shall be well with them in their latter end. God turns to the people. Shall the most hardy and vigorous of their efforts be able to contend with the counsel of God, or with the army of the Chaldeans? Let them hear their doom. The enemy will treat the prophet well. But the people who had great estates would be used hardly. All parts of the country had added to the national guilt; and let each take shame to itself.